Press Releases

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 25, 2015 – Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in high-performance cyber security solutions, announced today that its broad network security training and certification program is being adopted across the globe at rapid scale, as companies look to expand their knowledge and expertise in protecting critical assets from cyber attacks. Formally launched at the Fortinet Global Partner Conference (GPC) in January 2015, the Fortinet Network Security Expert (NSE) program enables participants to fully leverage the power of Fortinet’s fast, secure and global cyber security platform, and be recognized in the industry among an elite group of security professionals.

Within 60-days of rolling out the NSE training at the Fortinet global partner conference, more than 3,500 professionals registered and began the program, with over 10,000 participants expected to complete a level of NSE certification this year.

“As a leader in the network security industry, Fortinet serves large and growing global enterprise customer and partner base that trusts Fortinet to help them detect and prevent known and unknown threats and safely enable the applications they install and use every day,” said John Maddison, VP Marketing Products for Fortinet. “Our NSE training and certification program advances participants’ abilities to leverage Fortinet solutions to develop a broad security infrastructure, recognize network risks and vulnerabilities, and mitigate looming security threats that could jeopardize their businesses.”

Fortinet NSE Certification Raises the Bar in Network Security Certification
Organizations today are ever more concerned with the cyber security risks they face and the possibility of breaches that could tarnish their brand or negatively impact their customers. Taking additional steps to improve technical skills and experience is an important differentiator for customers and partners working to help ensure their critical data and the data of the customers they serve is aptly protected.

Designed for all technical professionals interested in independent validation of their network security skills and experience, the eight-level Fortinet NSE program is open to everyone, including the entire Fortinet global partner community of more than 10,000 partners and the more than 210,000 Fortinet customers. Those who complete all eight levels of the program will be provided unprecedented industry recognition of expertise in network security at all levels, including a prestigious expert level step to recognize only the best of the best security practitioners.

Unlike other network security certification programs available today, Fortinet’s NSE program offers a well defined and highly structured approach for professionals at all levels from novice in networking security technologies through industry experts, securing the most complex environments. The NSE Program offers training, assessment and certification in a guided path from entry to completion of each step in the process.

Adding Value for Partners
Fortinet is dedicated to providing the highest levels of training and enablement to help its global partner-base achieve greater levels of growth and profitability. The Fortinet NSE certification training, which is offered free-of-charge to all Fortinet partners, provides an important differentiator, allowing partners to demonstrate a diverse range of critical security skills to better service existing and new customers. In addition, the NSE program offers a number of tangible benefits for partners specific to their level, which include enhanced escalation, invitations to NSE-only events and public recognition for certification.

Since the program launched in January, more than 2000 partners have signed up and begun training, including large global partners like HP, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, Hughes, Bell Canada, Dimension Data, Carousel, Ingram Micro, Fujitsu, Bulletproof Solutions and more, with over 700 partner sales and systems engineers having completed at least one level of the eight-level program to date.
“It is critical in today’s threat environment that IT and line of business executives alike drive emphasis on cyber security spending, hiring quality talent and furthering education and training for that talent, or risk catastrophe,” said Steve Coscarella, VP of Data Services from Carousel Industries. “The Fortinet NSE program gives us the means to further demonstrate our network security industry expertise and offer customers peace of mind knowing they are buying the right solutions and services to protect their businesses.”

About Fortinet

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) protects the most valuable assets of some of the largest enterprise, service provider and government organizations across the globe. The company's fast, secure and global cyber security solutions provide broad, high-performance protection against dynamic security threats while simplifying the IT infrastructure. They are strengthened by the industry's highest level of threat research, intelligence and analytics. Unlike pure-play network security providers, Fortinet can solve organizations' most important security challenges, whether in networked, application or mobile environments -- be it virtualized/cloud or physical. More than 200,000 customers worldwide, including some of the largest and most complex organizations, trust Fortinet to protect their brands. Learn more at www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog or FortiGuard Labs.